World's most dangerous airline, coming right up!

I'm absolutely flabbergasted to read that the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) has announced that it's setting up a low-cost 'taxi airline' in that country. I was torn between the desire to burst into uncontrollable, hysterical laughter, or to cry my eyes out at the impending death toll in South African skies (or, rather, on the ground beneath those skies, when the 'taxi airliners' start falling out of them!).

To understand this reaction, you need to understand that the South African 'minibus taxi' industry is a disaster on four wheels (if you're lucky - three wheels might be more to the point, considering the way their drivers take most corners!). Not only are the vehicles often unroadworthy, their drivers are largely rude, incompetent and dangerous in the extreme.

Minibus taxi rank in Cape Town, South Africa (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

The owners and operators frequently behave like criminals in their efforts to gain any advantage they can, and aren't above killing each other in the trying. You can read up about these murderous tendencies in the Wikipedia article 'Taxi Wars in South Africa' (a very apt description, BTW).

Let a local correspondent, writing earlier this year, describe the trials and tribulations involved.

In South Africa, yes there are buses . And yes, there are taxis. But you need to note that when you use either of these it might be the last thing you ever do.

These are not taxis in the typical Western sense of the term like you know them in the UK or the US. The industry is made up mostly of 16-seater commuter kombi buses which are more often than not unsafe or not roadworthy. Minibus taxi drivers are known for their disregard for the road rules and for dangerously overloading their vehicles with passengers of sometimes upto as many as 33 passengers. The taxi drivers have long since been notorious in South Africa. Most minibus taxis drive at high speed like the devil himself.

. . .

Buses are all the same. In the past month I have seen two bus accidents on my route to work, and three taxi accidents in Pretoria. Just to give you an idea, I live about 7km from work. All these accidents were due to speeding & reckless driving (e.g. running a red traffic light). Obviously depending on which bus driver you land up with, but most of the ones I come across drive like they stole the bus.




Firstly they endanger the passengers – secondly normal road users are subject to share the road with these people and public anger against minibus taxi drivers is reaching boiling point.

. . .

South African road safety statistics are far from comforting. One in two out of approximately 150 000 public minibus taxis is involved in an accident every year. According to the AA, it recorded an annual total of 70 000 minibus taxi crashes, indicating that taxis in the country amount for double the rate of crashes compared to all other passenger vehicles. According to media reports, at least 74 people were killed and 203 injured in minibus taxi accidents across the country in August and early September alone. So if you're really worried about staying alive out there, do NOT take a minibus taxi.

There's more at the link (although it's not for the faint-hearted!). The author may be politically incorrect, but he's absolutely factually correct. I can personally testify to that! You can see a video report about South African minibus taxis here (unfortunately, embedding has been disabled, so I can't post it directly).

When a South African minibus taxi runs out of baggage space, it adds a trailer . . . or two!

The death of ten schoolchildren in a single incident last year is only one example of the appalling death toll meted out by these incompetent maniacs. (One taxi - a 16-seat vehicle - was found with no less than 48 schoolchildren aboard!) Furthermore, the taxi owners and operators are absolutely ruthless in protecting their interests, up to and including blocking roads to protest against competing services (as in their protests against a new bus service set up for the World Cup last year), and even attacking, killing and injuring those using alternative transport.

Minibus taxis block a main road in Johannesburg
to protest the launch of a competing bus service last year

It's therefore not surprising that a Black South African journalist writes about the reports of a 'taxi airline' in somewhat less than enthusiastic terms.

Okay, okay. Can you run that by me once again? The SA National Taxi Council is about to launch a low-cost airline? If this story had broken two months ago, I would have dismissed it as a belated April Fool's joke. But no, after several attempts at trying to get a denial from Santaco, I have been told that the taxi association is serious about the announcement they made this week.

And they are not just talking: they are launching themselves into the skies in November.

Sensing the incredulity that greeted the announcement, Santaco president, Jabulani Mthembu, was quick to point out: "We are not making taxi drivers pilots. Aquarius (which provides aircraft to SA Link and SA Express) will provide us with a full service, including planes, pilots and licensing."

Huge sigh of relief. But still, we are talking about Santaco here, a group which over the years has run the taxi industry with forthright arrogance and very little regard for passengers or other road users. The taxi industry is not only unregulated, it is a law unto itself. I do not know of any taxi owner who pays tax.

Apart from their refusal to pay tax, taxi owners pay little regard for their vehicles.

It's only when a taxi can't move at all that the owner will reluctantly fork out a few bucks for repairs. Even then, the driver is instructed to take the vehicle to the nearest bush mechanic.

From an observer's point of view, you would think all taxi drivers were rude, badly raised grouches whose mission was to break every road regulation - from running red lights, changing lanes on a whim and hooting for no apparent reason, to driving way beyond the speed limit.

But, interacting as I do with both taxi drivers and owners, I know that many drivers are always under pressure to make as many trips as possible.

Owners, who graduated from being drivers themselves, have refined abuse into an art form. A person who was abused as a child usually grows up to be abusive himself. The same applies to owners.

They are bullies of unremitting delinquency who don't hesitate to use their fists and the sjambok on drivers should they fail to meet their trip quotas.

Of course I am not saying taxi drivers are angels whose lives are run by taxi owners. There are many drivers who think sitting behind a steering wheel gives them a licence to be rude, abusive and violent towards both their passengers and other road users.

. . .

Another feature of the taxi industry is the incessant fights between members of the various taxi associations over who has the right to use which route. Both drivers and commuters are killed during these skirmishes which have become an integral part of one of the most violent industries in the country.

It's against this background, which speaks eloquently of a lack of organisation and professionalism, that many of us can't believe that Santaco is serious about an airline of its own.

Flying is about professionalism, precision, accuracy and punctuality. Imagine the chaos in our airspace if our aviation industry were to be run just like our taxi industry.

Again, more at the link.

All I can say is, this report should give the USA's Federal Aviation Administration screaming nightmares in case the new 'taxi airline' ever decides to fly beyond South Africa's borders. For that matter, they should have screaming nightmares anyway, for fear that perfectly safe American airlines, flying into South Africa, will be sending their aircraft into airspace occupied by other aircraft controlled by morons like these!

Sometimes I'm sorry the Wright Brothers got it right. This is one such time - and I daresay many South African airline passengers are thinking likewise, right now! As Reuters reports:

Messages on Twitter about the proposed airline include: "You will have to stand on the runway with your finger in the air", "Well at least you'll be closer to heaven in the event of a crash," and "Two passengers on one seat."

Indeed!





Peter